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Comment by gHosts | Hacker News Reader

I don't think there is a euthanasia bill passed or even on the table in the entire planet where "we start killing people because you" is acceptable.

That's just plain FUD.

They are all, "The patient, being of sound mind, jumps through a large bunch of legal hurdles to be permitted to exit peacefully and painlessly."

> "Most people with something terribly wrong are holding out hope"

We're talking about people inches from death here. If they had hope they would be in hospital. They no longer have hope, only pain.

> A lot of people can't quite commit to euthanasia because "what if they find a cure a week later?"

A lot of people want euthanasia as a barrier against fear... "There have been some terrible days, and I'm certain I'm dying, and as I die, it will get worse. If it gets intolerable, I can opt out... it's not intolerable today, so I can hold on another day."

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There aren’t laws with that explicit purpose, but it does seem to occur. I don’t actively seek out and follow this topic, but I remember a few news stories where I shook my head:

- https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45117163 29 chooses physician assisted suicide because she was terminally mentally ill - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/europe/doctors-belg... a case where doctors were acquitted, but charged by a family member, of eeuthenasia a 40 year old who was depressed and autistic. Other family members supported the death. Also has another story of “ In the Netherlands, a doctor was acquitted in September after having been accused of failing to secure proper consent from a 74-year-old patient who suffered from Alzheimer’s and had been administered euthanasia by the doctor.”

I think this is an issue where the risk of abuse or misuse is very great. The accusation in the above case is that doctors did not attempt to treat the depression and instead allowed the patient to choose death. At 40.

Depression and Suicide is serious. I don’t want to go down a path where there’s some suicide checklist that includes “ok then, off you go” rather than trying to treat depression and help the patient.

I don’t think it’s FUD to discuss this and think about it with others. It’s important and not clear cut.

Technically attempting treatment should be part of that checklist.

Just like palliative treatments, this is ultimate last resort of exclusion.

Presuming there is any reason it's depression, and one of the risks of depression treatments is increase in risk of suicide. Could lead to the same end, or even kill the patient anyway with other side effects. And when do you decide "garbage" therapies like counseling or socialization fail?

In the case above, the problem is that treatment requires the person to be committed, and person committed is declared not of sound mind. That's the catch-22 of euthanasia laws. You would have to change the part "of sound mind".

And then the doctors could be sued anyway, because some alleged treatment was missed. Either you trust the doctors made a diagnosis correctly or not.

No, it's not FUD. It's called conversation. I was engaging the point made that "if you are just a burden to your family..."

There doesn't need to be legislation in the works somewhere on planet Earth for it to be a valid point to say "Yeah, that's a super bad reason to agree someone should die and here's why."

I stated up front I'm pro right to die. I have a Dread Disease myself. I'm abundantly familiar with the other side of the equation of "I want to check out now, thanks. I've had enough."

I did touch on that aspect in my comment. My Dread Disease is why I think I should have the right to decide "No, seriously, I've had enough. I want out and this is the only way out of this torturous prison called my defective body."

>That's just plain FUD.

Yep, parts of Australia just approved a euthanasia bill and its full of so many restrictions there is next to no way it can be abused. I think the tl;dr is you have to have a terminal illness that will kill you in 6 months and which is causing you pain and you have to consent to it.

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